As I was getting into photography and poring over professional images, one of the biggest questions I had was, "What makes that picture so good? Is that sheer talent and skill? Is that what amazing gear can do for you? Or is that the result of good editing?" (And I still ask myself that question as I look at the work of photographers far beyond my ability!) Whenever someone asks me that very question now, I answer, "Yes, yes, and yes."
Yes, it takes a lot of studying and practice, practice, practice to consistently produce good images. And yes, the better the gear, the nicer the pictures you can ultimately produce (although I'd frankly rather have my own photo taken by a talented photographer wielding a $100 point and shoot camera than by someone who is "gear-heavy and knowledge-light"). And yes, processing can definitely help refine an image!
Anyway, for those of you who might ask the same question, I thought I'd share a before and after to give you an idea of the role processing can play. In general, SOOC images tend to be a bit flat. Most benefit from adding some contrast and sharpening. (And if you leave your white balance on auto, like I do, there's often some color correction needed, too. My camera tends to shoot "cool", so I usually "warm up" my images to compensate for that when I'm processing.) I'm no guru in the arena of editing, but one thing I can tell you: Subtlety is key! I cringe when I look back at many of my early processing attempts... the plastic-looking skin, the freaky neon saturation...
For those of you who want to equate the gear factor: I shot the above image of Samantha on a Canon 5d, with an 85mm 1.2 lens wide open at 1.2, a shutter speed of 1/5000, and an ISO of 200.
And since I've got the workshop file open, I thought I'd share a few more with you from our fun outing:
To book a wedding or session, e-mail me at jamie.zanotti@gmail.com
